


these words

by lefiya



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Slow Burn, Social Anxiety, note passing, selectively mute!yixing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-11-17 12:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11275410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lefiya/pseuds/lefiya
Summary: Baekhyun stopped passing notes in class when he was 10. He'd started to communicate verbally, started to excel at it.Yixing stopped talking to people outside of his friend group when he was 15. He'd started to keep to himself, he already excelled at that.Words written on wrinkled, lined paper is their common ground. Words always hold more meaning when they're written down. You can feel them, hold them, and read them over and over again.Yixing doesn't talk much. But that's okay, Baekhyun always talks enough for the both of them anyway.





	1. Chapter 1

The alarm blaring on the side of Baekhyun's head effectively wakes him up. It always does.

This time, though, he snoozes it.

It's senior year, the year where basically everyone collectively has a silent mental breakdown deciding what they're going to do with their lives.

Some just stop giving a shit their senior year, the work you've done your other years essentially in high school basically determine what's going to happen to you according to those seniors.

He kind of agrees with that, and if anything its really only the first half of the year that matters.

Not that he's going to drop out or become a super senior, but he decides that his sleep is more important, whatever class he has first be damned.

It is only just one day, after all. It can't hurt too badly to skip out on the boring conduct and rule explanations that are bound to be the only thing discussed the first day. He's a good kid, he doesn't need to be told how to behave, he already knows.

He decides to just say "fuck it" and falls back onto his pillows, closing his eyes and welcoming sleep's embrace. It doesn't come.

He's anxious. 

He's worked hard since he started high school, always setting good habits for himself, why would he start slipping up now? 

Great, he thinks, here come his morals when it comes to school and academics. All the times Jongdae has teased him for being a "good noodle" since freshman year resurfaces in his head.

Maybe it was true. Just a little.

But was it really?

After all, Baekhyun's like any other average kid, always getting good grades and offering to stay after class to help his teachers with cleaning up or any other thing he could help out with.

He lets out a groan. "Goddamn it. I am a good noodle." If telepathy was a real thing, he'd be effectively cursing out Jongdae and his habit of watching Spongebob right now. How fitting for a kid to be watching a kid's show.

The other was probably barely waking up too.

With a sigh, he gets up and begins his daily routine. It hasn't been done in a while, but it's not long before he gets into the rhythm of things.

He decides to forgo breakfast, after throwing on some random white t-shirt he found near his bed and slim black jeans, he's on his way out the front door.

He usually puts more thought into the way he presents himself, but he can't bring himself to care today, first day of school or not.

Making his way through the busy streets, he notes how the weather has been getting better the past few days, no longer being so hot that he had no choice to stay cooped up at home in the cool AC. Perfect weather for the first walk to school.

He's in the middle of getting his headphones out when he feels a tap against his shoulder. He doesn't turn back to see who it was that got his attention, he had a feeling who it was already. 

"Baek, what's up?" Baekhyun knows this voice like the back of his hand. He doesn't have to look to see who it is. "Wanna accompany your favorite pal Jongdae to school?"

"We walk the same way, Dae." He tells Jongdae. "Even if I said no, you'd come along anyways."

"Way to make a guy feel important, Baek. I'm liking the pink by the way, it suits you." Baekhyun replies with a wink, earning a scoff in return. He dyed his hair on a whim about a week ago. His grandmother doesn't really care about what colors he chooses to decorate his hair with, so he finally went with the color he's been meaning to try out for a while now.

"A thank you would be nice you know." Jongdae whined.

Baekhyun entertains his friend. "I swear, you're worse than Chanyeol sometimes, Dae. But thanks. Your hair is looking good too. I'm liking the new shade."

"I haven't even done anything to it since my parents banned me from dying it anymore! Thanks for fucking rubbing it in!" Baekhyun just laughs and receives a light (not really) punch to the shoulder.

The rest of the walk is filled with a comfortable silence that is rare between the two, reserved only for their daily walks to school.

They make it to the front of school, only two minutes to spare before the late bell would ring throughout the campus. Baekhyun realized that he didn't even check what his first period was, he knows he brought his schedule through, he's not making the same mistake he did freshman year.

Freshman year's already awkward enough as it is, trip to the office to explain why he didn't know his first class and the embarrassment he felt walking into first period late as the teacher was in the middle of something had his cheeks aflame and both Chanyeol and Jongdae unsuccessfully trying to muffle their laughter across the room made Baekhyun want the year to end right there in that moment.

No witty comment or wicked amount of charm could have saved Baekhyun in that moment.

"Alright, I've got Physics first period, so I'm off to the science wing. What did you get? Maybe we could walk together." Jongdae suggests. The other pulls out the wrinkled paper from his jean pocket and reads over the classes he has.

"I have health. It's in the science wing too," he replies.

Jongdae nods and leads Baekhyun by the arm, not exactly giving him a choice to decide whether or not he actually even wanted to walk with Jongdae. There's silence in the hallways, and silence between them, but Baekhyun does his best to ignore that bit.

Eventually, they make their way there, the bell already ringing before they split off into their respective classes.

All Baekhyun gets from the teacher is a look that seems disapproving of his tardiness, but he pays it no mind.

No way in hell he's letting freshman year play all over again.

He looks for the nearest empty seat in any of the long rows of chairs. The only one being a seat in the farthest row, one chair away from the corner of the room next to a kid with black hair and a dazed, blank expression on his face.

He doesn't blame the guy, senior year and taking health is probably the most mind numbing thing to come this year. A pointless class for necessary credits. Baekhyun has never seen the point of having this class mandatory for graduation.

He sits down, offering a greeting to the confused-looking boy.

"Hey." Baekhyun greets the boy.

He wasn't bad looking, he was actually pretty attractive and Baekhyun was not one to allow the opportunity of talking to a hot person to pass him by.

No words as a reply, Baekhyun just gets a blank stare, five seconds later a small smile was given in return. He turns away quickly, looking at nothing in particular.

He takes that as a gesture to keep going with whatever he was doing. Not quite flirting, maybe attempt at small talk if anything.

"Nice dimple." He offers, no verbal reply yet again. Just a view of a single dimple and pink tinted cheeks.

Dimple (as Baekhyun so wisely named the other) turns to the front yet again, as if Baekhyun didn't say anything and looking slightly uncomfortable.

He guessed the guy didn't talk much, or was slightly weirded out by the sudden greeting, he didn't usually get that reaction. Hm.

Baekhyun's never been great at reading people in a "conversation-type" way. 

Kyungsoo and his "Maybe you just freak people out. Randomly greeting people out of nowhere kinda catches people off-guard. I mean I'm used to you, but I can see why some people just choose not to respond." be damned. He looks at the quiet guy again, same dazed face adorning his face yet again as he stared off into space.

"Um..." Great. He's struggling with his words like a child.

"I'm Baekhyun." he continues awkwardly. Baekhyun tells himself he's not being as charming as usual because his social skills are getting rusty. A summer spent most of the time at home and only hanging out with the same group of friends doesn't leave much room to try out pick up lines, smooth greetings, or witty comebacks.

No reply.

Dimple begins to write on the notebook in front of him.

Baekhyun is slightly offended and upset he keeps getting no reply from the other boy.

Maybe he's the one making him uncomfortable, he thinks to himself, guilt quickly bubbling in his chest.

"Uh, sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable," he blabbers instantly, noticing the other's slight discomfort at his straightforward interactions. "I know some people don't appreciate my spontaneous greetings and conversation starters, but I don't mean to make you feel like that. Just wanted to say that, you know. I don't usually get, but it happens. Okay, so I'll stop-" he stops himself before he can go on anymore because he knows that he's just babbling nonsense at this point. 

He vaguely recognizes the habit he had when he was younger. For a moment, the situation seemed all too familiar. He feels anxious.

Baekhyun hasn't felt something like this in a long time. He's stopped from thinking about it too much when he looks in front of him.

It was a piece of paper. Upon further inspection, he realizes it has words written on it.

Oh.

He reads the message scribbled neatly within the lines.

_hey! sorry for the one-sided conversation, i cant really talk to certain people. its kinda dumb but yeah... im sorry. its not you though, i promise! im really shy. thanks for the compliment. and the attempt at conversation. the thought is nice. i really appreciate it :)_

_im yixing btw :D_

He looks up from the note to see the same small smile directed towards him, the next moment its gone and he's facing the front yet again.

Well, there's progress.

The guilt he felt was washed away with the assurance from the note Yixing gave him.

Yixing.

Nice, Baekhyun thinks.

He takes out his own notebook and begins to write down a response, the familiarity giving him a rush of excitement.

_hey!!! so i guess i don't have to call you dimple now !! :D glad i can put a name to you now. :)) yixing. hm, is that chinese? :0 and its cool dw about it, i was actually beginning to worry i might have made you super uncomfortable :( i get that a lot from my friends, apparently im overbearing or whatever. im just a confident n charming guy, theyre just jealous :D im pretty sure lol. and that's nothing bad, sometimes my mouth runs on it's own and gets me in trouble :/ yeah, even a straight a student like me but its cool :D we all have our strengths, its not dumb. i admire that, its like that quote where fools usually always need to say smth and wise men have smth to say. i think that's how it went. damn..i just called myself a fool :/ its nothing new tho :^) i get it from my friends a lot lol._

_as you can see, i write as much as i talk haha. and my writing isn't exactly the prettiest :(_

Baekhyun slides the note over to Yixing, who in turn takes it and reads over it.

A few soft giggles are let out as he scans the piece of paper. He puts Baekhyun's down gently near the corner of his desk and writes down a response.

Baekhyun he hasn't passed notes to people since elementary.

He forgot how much more meaningful they were, the words on a sheet of paper that he could carry in his pocket and read over and over again. They're a lot more sentimental, that's for sure.

It's worth the hand cramps that start to run through after the long summer and a lack of writing on Baekhyun's part.

The next note is slid in front of him.

_ha lucky me. i would have called you pinkie. nice hair :0 i went blonde like 2 years ago but i just dyed it back to black after like 3 weeks. maybe ill try it again. maybe. but yeah it is! i lived there when i was a kid. i miss it :( ah ill admit i kinda was a little bit uncomfortable...sorry i just kinda take it to the head ig. it's never easy for me to accept that people are willing to go out of their way to talk to me ha. idk what im even saying rip but thanks for the kind words that makes me feel a bit better :) sometimes i wish i could talk more tho, people like you always have me like :0000 bc i cannot do social interaction lol esp verbally. so kudos to you, i can see the confidence you speak of when i hear you :D and hey, i can read it just fine! you're all good. there never is any "ugly" or "bad" handwriting, it's just unique handwriting! plain n simple._

_also i dont think you're an idiot at all :0 straight a's on those report cards would beg to differ._

Baekhyun smiles at the other. He's touched. He picks up his pencil to write down a response, but is interrupted by the bell. He's never wanted a class to last longer than this one, even the past years he's had Jongdae, Kyungsoo, or Chanyeol in his classes. Fucking bell.

He gets up from his seat. Yixing is still putting his notebook away by the time Baekhyun begins to walk away from their shared table, their eyes meet again before he's fully out of the classroom. He waves goodbye with his signature smile plastered on his face. "Until tomorrow, Yixing!" Yixing seems surprised by the volume but waves back in return, a small, dimpled on his face as well. He walks out of the room faster than Baekhyun has ever seen, even with the large amount of students who basically jump and sprint at the sound of a bell. It's a bit odd, but Baekhyun doesn't really have a mind to think any more beyond that.

He makes his way to the next class, thumbing the notes left in his pocket.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> gig's up before it's even started and baekhyun is bombarded with questions about his new interest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wanted to add texting between jd n bh as a last minute thing but idk if it worked well
> 
> also, i am not funny at all :^) (even though i love to think that i am)
> 
> Edit: wrong publish date for this chapter :))) incorrectly stated 6/23 when i posted on 6/24

Baekhyun was listening to the teacher go on about her rules on conduct and whatnot. Sure, it was boring beyond belief, but she hasn't gotten to the bit he was anticipating she'd cover; the extra credit and late work policy.

He was a living example of straight A's that could still be accomplished with the slightest bit of laziness, it was an art he knew how to work. His thoughts are interrupted when he feels a vibration against his front pocket.

His gaze instantly goes to Jongdae who's not being discreet about texting in class, turned back towards Baekhyun and pointing at his own phone.

Rolling his eyes, he decides to entertain his friend, and pulls out his phone. He stops for a moment to admire his lockscreen, a gathering at the amusement park last year, all of his group packed tightly together in one picture.

It never fails to make him smile. All their smiles are contagious.

Chanyeol, being the tallest, was in the back, signature wink and v-sign as his pose for the picture. Baekhyun was right in the center, obtained the spot by being a brat about the position, and insisted he get to be in the middle.

Eventually, Jongdae gave up and threw his hands in the air in defeat. Baekhyun was pleased with the outcome.

Of course, his smile was the biggest and best, both naturally and because he got what he wanted. His newly dyed silver hair stuck out between the 5 of them.

To his left stood Junmyeon, face like a model and smile that was blindingly bright, always insisting he's never gotten his teeth professionally whitened and that he has the same brushing habits as anyone else.

On the ends stood Jongdae with his high cheekbones protruding out and Kyungsoo with half of his rare gummy smile showing, as good as it was going to get with him.

He loved this picture the most out of the countless ones they took, he remembers the time spent trying to get a moment where no one was blinking or came out blurry.

He especially loved how Jongdae's face positioned so that whenever he had to input his passcode, he'd be basically tapping his face. It was oddly satisfying. So much, in fact, Baekhyun changed his passcode to "7777", it was a blessing on days Jongdae was being a particularly bigger shit than usual.

He inputs his passcode and taps on the notification:

 

  **New Message From :3c**

 

**From: :3c**

**Sent: 12:10**

 

> so..this boring ass class, amirite?

 

**To :3c**

**Sent: 12:10**

 

>  rly? u txted me just to tell me smth i already know? 

 

**From :3c**

**Sent: 12:11**

 

>  come on man, im dyign here

 

**To: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:11**

 

> well...

 

**From: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:11**

 

> well what????

 

**To: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:12**

 

> am i in ur will? :D

 

**From: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:12**

 

>  asshole

 

**To: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:12**  

 

>  u are what u eat B^)

**From: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:12**

 

> oh my god first off u just got urself buddy and second of all eatin ass is nasty
> 
> ur a nasty

 

**To: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:13**

 

> k thats fine n dandy
> 
> u werent saying it was nasty when i walked in on u n the mystery guy u had a fling with that one time at ur house last year
> 
> oh shit
> 
> i just remembered
> 
> u never told me who that was

 

**From: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:13**

 

>   ...
> 
> fuck u
> 
> speaking of that
> 
> u rly need to learn how to knock btw
> 
> and youll never know >:3c
> 
> doesnt matter anyways we dont talk 
> 
> tbh i forgot his name lmao

 

**To: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:14**

 

> love u too dae
> 
> well hey now u have a lock on ur door for a reason
> 
> and i wasnt expecting my dear friend to be u know..
> 
> bakin a cake in his own room
> 
> u feel me?
> 
> esp with a dude u dont know n dont tell ur friend about :(

 

**From: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:14**

 

> ...
> 
> ok im never eating cake again
> 
> ur the literal worst being on this earth

 

**To: >:3c**

**Sent: 12:14**

 

> <3

 

No reply from Jongdae after that.

Mission accomplished.

Just as he locked his phone and slid it into his pocket, class was over, the lunch bell rang and everyone darted outside the room. Jongdae was already by his side, so there was no need to hunt him down like previous years.

Baekhyun thinks back to his lockscreen picture. There was one person he hasn't seen today in the halls or in class.

Baekhyun decides to address Jongdae with his question, "Hey, come to think of it, I haven't seen Junmyeon the whole day. Did he come to school today?"

Jongdae scoffs. "Of course he did, he's _Junmyeon._ He told me he was gonna be busy with stuff. You know, being class president, having a life, all that jazz."

"Well, thanks for letting the rest of us know, Dae."

"Anytime, babe." He sent a wink Baekhyun's way. "I'd assume you understand fully, considering you both are good noodles."

"Again with the good noodle bullshit!" He wasn't really mad, it was actually entertaining that he keeps referencing a cartoon who's main demographic is 5 year olds.

"Anyways, if being a 'good noodle' gets me double the GPA you've been pulling since freshman year, then that's all fine with me."

Jongdae pulls a shocked face and dramatically grabs his chest. "Yo. Not cool man." Baekhyun shoots him a wink, still walking towards their destination.

They finally made it their table. It's empty when they get there, as it ought to be. Sitting here since freshman year wasn't going to change until they all graduate and leave.

The pair was quiet, watching as the sea of students pouring out from the main hall, began to disperse in their own individual groups. Baekhyun wondered if he'd see Yixing out here, wondered if he had people who kept him company.

Baekhyun hoped he did. 

"So." Jongdae starts.

"So." Baekhyun mirrors.

Jongdae chuckles lightly before asking, "So. You had that look in class for like the whole hour. What's with the butterflies and daises look today, Baek? Spotted and locked on some choice, A+ dick while we were in different classes?"

A snort in response. "Gross. And for your information I haven't even taken his dick into consideration just yet, thank you very much. You forget I'm not a sinner like you. Like that other time with-" He was cut off by a fast hand to his face.

"Dude! You know we don't talk about that shit anymore, past is past! Isn't mentioning mystery guy enough already? And I'm not even gross, it's called hormones. We're teens, we got plenty of them. Don't blame me."

A sliver of silence before Jongdae puts two and two together. "Wait. Holy shit! What?! Not a day's gone by this school year and you're already thirsting after someone-" Jongdae's cut off as well.

A tray is slammed onto their shared lunch table, right across from Baekhyun.

He groans at the antics of his friend group, he's not one to get easily flustered or embarrassed, but they've always managed to be exceptions to that.

To couple with the loud noise, the new arrival also gasps before adding their unnecessary commentary, "What?! What's this I hear about thirstin'? Spill, Baek! Who is it?! Who is it?! I might know him!!"

Chanyeol.

Stupidly loud, tall oaf and his blabbering mouth. Of course he might, he talks to everybody he comes in contact with, intrigued by what he's saying or not.

The "Shut the fuck up, Yeol." he was about to say was interrupted by another person. Sing the praises, I've been blessed on this beautiful day, he thinks.

"Be quiet and sit down, Chanyeol. It's the first day of school and you're already bringing negative attention to us." Kyungsoo makes himself known as the group began to quiet down.

No one was about to go against Kyungsoo's words so they all sat down and collectively shut their mouths. "If I didn't know better I would think all of you came straight from auditions for a spot on a shitty parody of Scream or something. A pack of animals is what we seem like with all the commotion and unnecessary screaming." He addresses the two sitting across from him, slightly scared for their lives at the scolding they're getting from Kyungsoo, knowing not to piss him of at all if they want to live past graduation.

He deems them quiet enough to start a conversation, and turns towards Baekhyun.

"So, what was all the commotion about? Was it worth riling these fools up?"

Finally. A civilized question from a civilized person. Offended scoffs could be heard from the other two, but they didn't say anything else.

"Okay. So there might be this guy. Notice the 'might'. And maybe it's more of an interest thing right now because he's just so..odd? He just seems really nice. Actually, he is pretty nice." His hand was in his pale pink hair, anxiously scratching his head as he ancicipates Kyungsoo's response. 

It's not hard to talk about Yixing, he's only telling the truth, he really is interested in the quiet guy with the nice smile and honest, warm eyes. He ignores the fake retching sounds from across the table, and frowns at their reactions.

"Oh, cool." Kyungsoo's never been one with many words, Baekhyun knows he's not brushing him off and listening intently. He appreciates his reactions better anyways, they're often very sensible, honest, and understanding.

"What's his name?"

It's at this question that he can see the two idiots across from them leaning in, clearly interested in knowing the mystery guy so that they may mercilessly tease him for it.

Not that it matters, it's their thing anyways, happened with all of them at one point. Baekhyun's just concerned with their motor mouths, they cannot keep secrets for shit, he knows that much from experience. They never mean harm, they just have zero filter when it comes to anything, confidential crush information included.

"Yixing." He replies simply.

The next thing he feels is water being sprayed directly at his face.

What the fuck.

He opens his eyes to a Jongdae who just finished spitting out all of the water from his mouth, trying not die of laughter at the view in front of him.

Off to the side was an interested, yet confused Chanyeol, who probably didn't know who Baekhyun was talking about.

Baekhyun made note to to kill Jongdae sometime in the future for the disgusting water dripping down his lips and cheeks.

He can't think anything more because said person replies, "Yixing? As in, Zhang Yixing? About as tall as you, black hair, dimple on his right cheek when he makes any type of facial expression? Super Quiet? I mean, he's not bad looking but the dude's quiet as shit! Total opposite of you! Out of your league if you ask me, no way he would be able to handle a tenth of your loud ass." He has a smug expression adoring his face, thinking his input was some sort of wise advice that was wanted in this situation. 

"Shut up, Dae. You don't think I know that? How do you know the guy anyway?"

He's genuinely curious as to how Jongdae knows Yixing.

And how Jongdae probably knows more about Yixing than Baekhyun. Sure, they did just meet today, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't jealous of Jongdae and his slightly superior people skills.

"Had him last year for Mandarin. It was a higher leveled class, but it was worth two years so I just took it for the hell of it. I had Han-hyung help me last year since he speaks it. We made a study group with Minseok-hyung and we aced the class. He had the same period as I did, I sat near him, and I honestly don't think I heard the guy say anything the entire year." He pauses to remember the limited knowledge on Yixing.

"People would try talking to him, but it seemed like he usually only nodded in response to not seem rude towards people. Or, at least, that's what I thought." Jongdae says. "Besides that, he kinda kept to himself and always seemed in his own world. Had this sort of confused and dazed face on majority of time I saw him."

Baekhyun wasn't expecting him to be silent throughout the whole year. Shit, sometimes he couldn't go like 10 minutes without making some kind of remark, made him feel like he was caged, he liked social interaction.

Especially if it was verbal, even if he was the only one doing the talking, he was fine with that.

It's just a bit hard to have even a one-sided conversation when Yixing, despite his politeness, doesn't particularly look like he wants to be talked to.

He didn't realize this the time they were interacting with each other, he's never had to. Practically everyone who's been given a greeting by Baekhyun always return it with words of their own, his talkative personality like a wildfire that spread with no bounds.

He likes talking to people and getting to hear other's thoughts on return. He's supposed to talk to people.

He has to.

Sure, the notes are lovely and more thought-provoking, but there was a reason his talkative personality has been his trademark since he was no more than eleven. 

Jongdae continues with his thoughts, pulling Baekhyun from his own.

"Still, I'm legitimately surprised by this revelation. My loud-mouth Baekhyun? Who knew you liked the quiet ones? I mean, I guess you did have that thing with Taeyeon for like a month, and she wasn't exactly the loudest person ever."

Baekhyun snorts at that last comment. "We do not talk about that. Ever. Not in my house." He did not want to be reminded of the mistake that was agreeing to date Kim Taeyeon. 

"We're outside, Baek." States Chanyeol as a matter-of-factly, for some reason pointing at the sky.

Baekhyun lets out a groan. "Fuck you all." 

They both took that comment as an opportunity to fuck with Baekhyun even more. "Kinky. We're all flattered here. But no thanks, Baek. I think Yeol and I are gonna have to pass on your request." Chanyeol is visibly struggling with muffling his laughter.

Jongdae thinks he's real cute.

Well, he's not.

The witty comeback would have to wait, though. The bell rang, always managing to ring at the worst possible moments.

Jongdae took this as his opportunity to run. "Bye, guys! Love you, Baek!"

Stupid fool. Screw you, Kim Jongdae.

He turned to his other friends, still sitting down at the table, and got up. "I'll see you guys around. I got Econ next and it's probably best I'm not late to two classes in the same day." He begins to walk towards the main hall, waving in their direction.

"See you, Baek." Was said in unison from the two.

He went on his way to the main hallway, he had to get his Economics textbook from his locker. Of course, the only textbook he needed for the day just had to be the heaviest fucking one, and on the first day of school.

He grumbled and began to enter his combination on the beaten up lock, even after all the abuse it endured throughout his high school endeavors, it still worked just fine. The now open locker revealed the layout that's remained the same since freshman year.

The small string lights hung up his sophomore year had lost their battery life, no longer illuminating the tight space.

He'd have to replace them sometime soon, they made a beautiful display, they were always easy on the eyes and made days just the slightest bit easier to get through. Chanyeol bought them for him on one of their semi-frequent little mall escapades.

"So you can always be reminded of my bright smile." He said, big stupid smile that showed all of his teeth gleaming in the sunlight as Baekhyun looked up at him.

They did do that. A good investment on his part.

He glanced to the end of the space. The picture of his family was still in the back of his locker, the picture of his group was right next to it, much smaller and the slightest bit wrinkled, taken in sophomore year.

Both pictures were pinned up by little clothespins Baekhyun found at an arts and crafts store where he insisted that Kyungsoo come along. The little container filled with them was in the corner, almost entirely forgotten about as the years went by.

He looks back to their group picture, fond memories serving to make him curl his lips slightly.

They all look the same, even now. Chanyeol's always been tall, but he had a major growth spurt their junior year. The others, however, their height didn't really change, Baekhyun just being the slightest bit taller than Kyungsoo, Junmyeon, and Jongdae in the picture.

They're all getting old. Adulthood's right around the corner.

Baekhyun is saddened by this realization.

He decides that its time to go to class before he's late twice in the same day, but he really just doesn't want to get caught bawling in front of his locker in the massive hallway.

He's always been more sentimental than most people, always keeps any gifts given to him by anybody, always has been grateful for the thought behind whatever item he was given. He gives his locker a once-over before closing the large metal door and clicking his lock back into place.

Book in tow, he makes his way to the next class.

Baekhyun stops right in the middle of the hallway not too far from where he originally was, he stops because he sees Yixing. Or at least, Yixing's legs, he was sure it was him, he knows he was wearing slip-on shoes today.

The top portion of his body was covered by the open locker door, and for a brief second, he asks himself if he should just keep going, so that Yixing wouldn't consider him an even more obnoxious person than he might have beforehand.

Too late to ask that now considering he's already making his way to the other.

He's never been one to do the most logical thing when it came to people, despite his self-proclaimed "god-tier" people skills.

"Hey." He greets. Real smooth.

Especially considering he just made Yixing literally jump at the sound of his voice. 

"Oh shit, sorry, Yixing. Bad habit." He apologizes.

Except, it wasn't a bad habit, that's just Baekhyun's normal, indoor voice. He knows now to give Yixing some sort of warning so he doesn't have a heart attack.

He waits until Yixing's gotten over his nerves, which takes a while before he visibly settles.

He offers a wave that's slightly shaky, and then reassures a guilty Baekhyun with an equally shaky thumbs up.

"You, um, want me to walk you to class? To kind of make up for, you know, scaring the living shit out of you."

He pulls Yixing's attention from the large crowd of students passing them in the hallway. He seemed tense. Maybe this was a bad idea. 

He really does feel bad, and he's aware of the high probability that he's hoping to get rejected after startling Yixing, but it's worth a try. 

Yixing seems to consider Baekhyun's offer for a few seconds, a thoughtful look on his face as he looked up slightly, turned away from the direction of the large crowd.

He ends up accepting his offer with a light nod. Nice, Baekhyun thinks. Nice.

So they make their way to wherever Yixing is going, Baekhyun following the mute more than actually walking Yixing to class. 

He notices that Yixing has taken to occupying the left side of Baekhyun, where he was essentially blocking out the sea of people.

He hums thoughtfully before saying, "The weather's been getting nicer lately. Never liked summer. I'm more of a spring guy myself, really." Yixing tenses a bit at the sudden conversation.

Fuck, fool mistake number one.

Making pointless small talk with the guy who can't and most likely doesn't want to reply to his stupid musings! Straight A genius Byun Baekhyun, definitely. Is it really that hard to control your impulses? Treat it like "Baekdae's daily quality silence school walk" he chastises himself.

The last thing he expects is for Yixing to respond with a nod of his own, so slight that it almost seems like his mind playing tricks on him.

He doesn't know what to say or what to do.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have anything wise to put out.

"I, uh, I talk a lot." Smooth.

Yixing looks up in thought for a few seconds, and nods his head to Baekhyun's statement.

Okay.

It's time to buy a canoe and row to the middle of the ocean.

His train of thought is stopped when he sees Yixing give him a quick "okay" sign, as if he sensed Baekhyun's distress.

"So, you think it's fine that I talk your ear off? And basically everyone else I come in contact with?"

A grimace and shaking of his head was Yixing's response.

Or, at least that was what Baekhyun got from him.

He pauses to swallow and gather his words, "I, uh, I hope I didn't push myself on you the first time? I dunno. Force of habit. I'll keep myself in check."  He looks expectantly at Yixing to gauge his reaction. 

To Baekhyun's relief, Yixing seems to understand.

He gives a light nod in response as if to say:

_Thank you for your concern._

He looks to the front of him yet again, as if nothing's been said. Baekhyun bits the bullet and asks yet another burning question.

"Also, I've been meaning to ask...are you alright with the whole note thing? I mean, just to make sure that I'm not over stepping my boundaries or anything. I mean, I really like it. It's nice. I used to do it a lot as a kid when I uh," Baekhyun says, rubbing his hands together anxiously. "Nevermind, it's, um, it's not important." He never babbles this much, hasn't in a long time.

He's nervous.

Not only because it's Yixing he's talking to, but because he feels like he's on thin ice.

He's never had to really stop and consider if the person he was talking to wanted conversation. It just happened, and was always appreciated. He doesn't know how to approach a situation like this.

It's so foreign that he feels more anxiety now than he has in ages.

Another pause to think about his answer. It seems like forever before Baekhyun sees Yixing nod once more.

They both fall into a comfortable silence, the chatter of students and numerous footsteps echoing throughout the large, seemingly never-ending hallway. 

Baekhyun is pleased to know that they make it to Yixing's class with time to spare. 

Yixing leaves, unsurprisingly, with no words.

He nods quickly to express his gratitude, looking like he wants to avoid lengthening the silent moment.

In the nicest, and most subtle way possible, of course.

Baekhyun doesn't mind it too much, reminding himself that the other didn't exactly give him an invitation to pretty much bug him and make him feel uncomfortable.

Once Yixing can no longer be seen beyond the doorway, Baekhyun turns and makes his way toward his next class.

He hasn't gone far when the late bell resounds throughout the empty hallway.

Two tardies in one day. That's a new record.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chronic tardiness is something i go through too baek, ur not alone
> 
> also: 
> 
> ik theres some discrepancies considering bh, ks, cy, jm, n jd (basically the bh clique) being the same grade, but for story sake i made it so.
> 
> hope that didn't confuse anybody :(


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> bargain hunter baekhyun agrees to go to the store with the gang instead of suffering alone at home.
> 
> instead of bread and milk, what he gets instead is a potential enemy and three potential friends (who he suspects to be angels in disguise).

The walk home with Jongdae was uneventful and mostly spent in silence, gazing at the scenery around them, taking in the sight of trees that swayed along with the summer breeze. The lingering warmth that was constantly felt was a good accompaniment, and Baekhyun found himself not minding the summer anymore, his resentment for the season stemming from the ignorance to its sensations after mostly staying indoors throughout the season.

It does wonders to go out and experience things.

The silence with Jongdae has always been somewhat rejuvenating after social interaction; he's good at social interaction, but he can only take so much before needing a "recharge".

The silence with Jongdae is nice, but it's silence nonetheless.

It still makes him feel a little bit incomplete and he can't settle. It always feels like something's missing, like the dead air that surrounds him is something he _needs_ to fill. He hasn't been able to fully embrace silence in ages _;_ there is no such thing as "peace and quiet" with Baekhyun _,_ it's an unfamiliar notion now. He is always desperate to fill it or ignore it with anything at his disposal: his voice, a joke he read from some online article, his affinity for skinship, or his music when he's alone. Silence swallows you up easily. Silence is bad. Silence is evil. Are these his sayings? No, they're not. But they're still right, they're always right.

The more he thinks about it, the more uneasy he gets, and the more he realizes he's rubbing his hands together and looking at his surroundings frantically, as if they would stop him from letting his thoughts go astray, from letting them go back in time, when he was alone and scared and vulnerable.

They don't.

But Jongdae does.

As if he noticed Baekhyun's internal ruminating, he pokes his side and gives him a worried face, his eyebrows scrunched together just the slightest bit. "Hey, you all good?" he asks.

The magic words.

Baekhyun is back on Earth with a few simple words and he's thankful for the interruption; thankful for the plug that was once again placed onto the spout that threatened to overflow the depths of his mind with distant and still-raw memories. As his trance-like state is broken, the sweat that clumps some of his carnation-shaded hair is all the more noticeable, and the breezes hits his face, reminding him of the reality he nearly slipped away from. It's been a while since he's thought back that much, he tries to pinpoint why he's all of a sudden thinking about what he tries pushing away so much. It's odd. 

It always seems like the feelings he tries suppressing are the ones that are so easily and readily coming back to him.

It's unfortunate, frustrating, and annoying.

He finally turns to Jongdae after a few moments, "Yeah," he swallows, the cool breeze drying his mouth. "Yeah, I am. You know not talking or going without any type of interaction for a long time kinda makes me, you know, just feel _eh_." 

"I know. You wanna talk about it?"

Yes. Maybe. "Nah," he looks at anywhere that's not Jongdae, suddenly feeling slightly awkward at the serious tone of their conversation. "Nothing new. 's stuff you already know anyways. Happens every summer when I don't have much to do besides hang with the gang."

He trusts Jongdae with all his being. He loves him dearly. Has the whole whopping 7 years they've known each other. If he didn't love Jongdae, he wouldn't have told him about what keeps him awake at night, the nightmares that always seem to real.

He just doesn't want to burden Jongdae with problems he needs to handle on his own. Burden him with problems he already knows about. Sometimes, there is no helping things, and you just have to accept that.

He'd get over it someday. For now, he's going to put it on the back burner and ease his friend's worries. He owes Jongdae and so many other people that much.

Jongdae knows Baekhyun. He backs down from interrogation mode and changes the subject for the sake of Baekhyun's comfort. "Well, I was thinking we go to the store later on, if you want. My mom needs some stuff at the house, and wants me to do the shopping. Just thought I'd off since, you know," An expectant look from Baekhyun. "Stop looking at me like that."

Baekhyun laughs, "Well?"

"I dunno, I just thought you wouldn't wanna be home all day. Since it was the first day of school and you're walking home with me, I figured you didn't stay back to help out teachers or whatever the good school folk like you do after school.", Jongdae teases, getting punch on the shoulder from a smiling Baekhyun in response. "So, you wanna come along? We can go home first so I can get the list and some money from my mom, and so you can ask your grandma if she needs anything at home. Maybe I'll ask Kyungsoo and Chanyeol if they wanna come with. Pretty sure Junmyeon's still at school taking care of business, but I'll give him a call anyways because it's always fun to be a bother."

Baekhyun doesn't have to think about the answer, but still pretends to do so as their homes slowly make into his field of vision. "Yeah, I'll go. Let me know if they come along." Baekhyun hopes they will. The more the merrier.

His friends never fail to make him forget his worries, especially with their shenanigans. Maybe he'll see Chanyeol topple over another soda display like last time, and watch the embarrassment that tongue-ties Chanyeol as he's apologizing to the nice store manager, flaunting his big eyes and clasping his sweaty hands as he offers to help clean up the mess he made. Since that mishap, Kyungsoo officially banned Chanyeol from pushing around his own cart, making him haul all the goods for his mother in a small plastic basket. No amount of "My arm's dyin', Kyungsoo. Please let me get a cart, I'll be careful this time!" being said would make Kyungsoo go back on his rule, especially from Chanyeol.

He can probably get Jongdae in on buttering Kyungsoo up, though. As much as the guy tried not to show it (because Baekhyun and Chanyeol would never tease Kyungsoo for it, or anything else, _ever._ ), he seemed to have just a slight weak spot for Jongdae whenever he whined for or about something. Jongdae never denies any accusations or teasing remarks, so at this point, Baekhyun's waiting for them to just come out with it to save the group the frustration. They've all been suspecting for a while, though, even if it didn't seem so sometimes. But they all knew each other almost too well to be _that_ oblivious.

He sighs unconsciously, putting his hands on his hips, like he was satisfied with his own high-five worthy commentary.

Young love.

"Okay...not sure what the sigh and the dad pose was for, but alright then. I'm gonna split off here. I'll be at your house in about 10 minutes or so." Jongdae steps off the sidewalk with a wave, looking onto the streets for any sign of passing cars, and just like that, he's on his way home.

Baekhyun walks a little bit further to where the stone path led up to his house, and makes his way to the front porch. The driveway was right along the path leading up to the house, both it and the '96 Lexus LS400 gifted to him on his seventeenth birthday used only on weekend escapades either with his group or with his grandparents remaining still as ever. His grandfather's '07 Toyota Corolla was currently at the shop, leaving Baekhyun's car with more space within the narrow driveway, but also left him with chauffeur duty for his grandparents if they needed to go somewhere.

Anyone walking up to the house could spot the bright flowers dispersed on both sides of the porch opening. The small flora he and his grandmother maintain are easy on the eyes, and gives a sense of life to the house. Not that it needs it, though.

The house is painted a pale yellow, and the curtains that cover each window have their own embroidered flowers on them, visible even from the ground in front of the home where Baekhyun currently was. Both him and his grandfather chose the color and painted the house, while his grandmother took to making curtains to adorn the windows with:

"Can't have anyone peeking in on you now, Baekhyunnie. It's a must to cover your windows," she told him, as he observed her handiwork with the white sheer curtains.

Hm. He never failed to see the beauty in this house, his house, his home.

He steps onto the porch—recently cleaned, judging by the absence of assorted debris and dead, fallen leaves _—_ and rings the doorbell adored with little metallic flowers. He realized during his last class that he forgot his house key at home, as he realized the only thing in his front pocket was the phone he managed to snatch on the way out his room, the daily routine of getting ready for school still foreign to him. He knows his grandmother hardly leaves the house during a school day, so he figured he wouldn't have to use the key under the clay pot that housed some plant Baekhyun didn't bother to know the name of.

The door swings open to reveal his grandmother, clad in her black, thick-framed reading glasses, smiling brightly at the sight of her grandson.

"Welcome home, Baekhyunnie," She says, holding her arms out for their usual greeting embrace.

He steps inside and into her arms, "You should really ask who it is before answering the door, Grandma," He tells her, still returning her warm embrace.

She scoffs at his words, "I have a peephole, I may be short, but you forget I'm still able to see through that thing!" She playfully smacks his back before pulling away. "How was your first day?"

"It was okay. I'll tell you more when I come back home. Jongdae asked me to accompany him to the store, is it okay if I go?"

"Look at my Baekhyun using his big boy words!" she laughs, almost identical to Baekhyun's unrestrained and airy laughter. "Yes, it's fine. But be back home in reasonable time, I know how long you stay at the store debating which brands are better and what is a better deal. Call me on the house phone if you need to."

"Alright, I can't promise anything though, I do love saving money," he chuckles to himself. "Before I go, do you need anything for the house?" He walks from the entrance to the nearby dining room and grabs an apple from the glass fruit-bowl in the middle of the wooden table, the polished wood showing no signs of wear over the years. His grandfather is sitting down at the head of the table, reading a newspaper. Baekhyun greets him silently with a wave before taking a bite of his apple.

The whole apple he had in his hand a minute ago was quickly turned into an apple core. He didn't notice how hungry we was until now. He realized his hunger was the result of not eating during lunch, instead spending the downtime on gossiping with his friends about his new _interest_. Yeah, that's the word he wants to go with.

His grandmother returns with her pale pink memo pad and its matching pen.

Baekhyun insisted at the store that the copious amount of bows scattered across the pages were too much for a memo pad, only to get ignored by his grandmother who told him something about never having too many bows, or that he simply didn't have good taste in stationery; it was something along those lines. She rips off the top page and hands it to Baekhyun.

"I listed everything that I need for the house. Most of it is just food, but if you somehow can't find something there, then just give me a call. Got it?" she asks expectantly.

"Got it," he skims the big, block writing on the pink sheet of paper.

There was a lot he needed to get apparently, he was wondering if he should just let Jongdae know he'd be using his car instead of just walking all the way there. On top of walking to the store, they also had to get Chanyeol and Kyungsoo if the two decided to go along with them. He starts to think things through for a while.

It's no fun carrying grocery bags full of circulation-blocking weights for 2 miles straight. Especially with their track records of spending extended periods of time rummaging through unfamiliar products, they usually made it out of the store by the time the sun set and the sky was dark, where the probability of tripping on a rock or branch went up by one hundred percent.

He decides it's in their best interests to minimize any risks of getting a broken ankle on the way to the store.

He hastily pulls out his phone to let Jongdae know about the change of plans. Before he can commence with the ever so pleasing tapping of Jongdae's face, the call screen pops up in his lockscreen's stead and he looks at the caller ID. It's Jongdae calling. He slides the phone icon over to accept his call.

"You here yet?" He asks into the phone speaker.

"Yeah, I'm right outside your door."

"'Kay, cool, I just gotta grab my car keys. I'm taking my car. You don't mind, right?"

"The hell?! That even a question? Of course I don't mind, be my damn coachman all you want!"

He scoffs at his friend's commentary, "You're like some whiny, discount Cinderella."

Before getting to the door, he quickly goes upstairs to look for a cap to wear.

"Yah, don't be an asshole."

"Mm, I'll think about it," he says, in the middle of rummaging through the top shelf of his closet. "Hey, are Yeol 'n Soo coming with us to the store? I'm not even gonna ask about Junmyeon because I know the guy's a busy bee." He has to feel for a cap, the shelf being much too tall to peer over without the assistance of a step-stool.

"Junmyeon wasn't picking up, so I'm assuming you're right. And yeah, they're coming. Not sure if it's because they actually need stuff from the store or because they have nothing to do at home," a chuckle is heard over the speaker. "It's a wonder and blessing we have no homework and loads of free time on our hands, maybe senior year won't be the hell we thought it'd be."

"True. I'm used to it, though. It's nice keeping busy with mind-stimulating homework and study sessions."

He's still swatting his hand after the countless times he's pulled out a beanie rather than a desired cap. As if he's been looking for a lifetime, he finally feels a material other than acrylic and grabs it.

Bingo.

He pulls away from the closet, slightly faded red cap with an unknown design in hand, but not before turning on the balls of his feet to grab the keys he neglected earlier in the day on his nightstand. Can't leave these behind again. "I know what you're about to say, Dae. Don't get me with that good noodle bullshit again." He deadpans, hoping Jongdae can imagine his face from just the tone of his voice.

"But it's funny!" he whines.

"Like when I call you a dinosaur or a camel? I'm almost to the door."

"That's not funny. That's distasteful." 

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, princess. See you in like 5 seconds," he hangs up on Jongdae before he can complain or do something else Jongdae-like.

He walks up to the wooden door, unlocks it, and swings it open. A Jongdae with a pout plastered on his face awaited Baekhyun past the threshold.

"You hung up on me—"

"Yeah, yeah, we can continue in the carriage, your majesty," he turns back towards the kitchen and lets his grandmother know he's leaving to the store, "Bye, Gram, I'll be back!" She doesn't reply, and is quick to wave him away without sparing a glance.

Jongdae, seeing the opportunity, peers his head past the nearly closed door and shouts, "Bye, Mrs. Byun! I'll have him back in one piece!" At Jongdae's voice, she quickly turns around, and gives a bright smile of her own.

"Jongdae! Nice to see you! Please take care of my knuckle-head grandson, you know the usual routine. Be careful out there," she turns away to tend to whatever she was doing in the kitchen. Baekhyun, although expecting it, is slightly offended by the shameless favoritism she often exhibits when it comes to his friends.

Jongdae quickly glances at Baekhyun—who's currently closing the door and locking up—and gives him a teasing smirk. "I love your grandma, dude."

Baekhyun scoffs, "Yeah, I'm sure you do. You always tell me that. For some reason, I'm thinking it's because you two like to gang up on me," he huffs.

He takes out his car keys and clicks the unlock button, the black car beeping back in response while the headlights give off a little flash still visible even in the unrelenting daylight.

"Well, I was gonna say because her cooking's the best, but that's always a nice bonus. Not my fault you're so easy to pick on, Baekhyunnie," he says across from the car hood, smirking as he enters the passenger side of the car.

Baekhyun follows suit, sitting on the black leather seat within, it's scorching hot from the summer heat rays. With a black exterior and black leather interior, it's a car that doubles as an oven, but he's used to it by now. "You do realize I"m older than you, right?"

"And when has that mattered, Baek?" he sasses, reaching over the center console to ruffle Baekhyun's hair.

"Doesn't seem to apply when I'm chewing your ass out and you pull the 'I'm younger than you' card, huh?" Jongdae hums in acknowledgement and is sudden to favor looking out the window at this particular moment. Baekhyun shakes his head at the response. (Or lack thereof.)

He sticks his key into the ignition and as always, he adores the purr that he gets in return. His right hand then lands to the stick in the center, setting it from "P" to "R" and backs slowly out of the driveway.

Once he's out, he turns onto the street and is off on the familiar path that leads to his friends' houses. He sees Jongdae reach over and turn on the radio to some station he insisted they played "that good shit all day, everyday". As found with a recent discovery by Baekhyun, it's just a CD he brought into his car without him noticing. It's just a jumble of his own covers of teeny bop songs and the original versions of said songs by groups that Baekhyun thinks pander way too much to preteen girls and teen girls who are in need of something to obsess about. He'll admit though, when Jongdae's "fan-boying" to some group and over-playing their new single, he often finds himself reluctantly singing along. 

And, he's also got to admit that the members Jongdae obsesses over occasionally are not bad-looking by any means.

Even now, with his pre-recorded song cover, Baekhyun is mouthing the words as Jongdae is full-on singing over his own voice.

It's moments like these where he's glad Jongdae can't drive, the guy would probably ram into somebody's car, and his reasoning would be that he "jammed too hard", or something else really foolish.

That, and he likes driving his friends around. He can't imagine driving himself around everywhere with out someone there to talk to or just _be with._

Within five minutes (or two awful covers later), they arrive at Chanyeol's house, the awkward giant standing on the sidewalk in front of his house with a smile and waving them over.

Baekhyun pulls over and mentally braces himself for an all-out assault on his ears taht is bound to occur once Chanyeol and Jongdae start getting way to absorbed in their music. The back door opens, and the whole car leans to the right where Chanyeol gets in, creaking in the slightest to accommodate the added weight. "Hey, guys." He greets.

"Hey, Yeol," Baekhyun greets, before driving off to the remaining house on his list: Kyungsoo's house.

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol didn't live too far from each other so it doesn't take too much time to arrive in front of Kyungsoo's house. It didn't take much time for the two passengers to nearly quadruple in volume either. Baekhyun pulls over to the curb and looks out to see an expectant Kyungsoo, in his usual cross-armed stance, also preparing himself for the very long ride with both Chanyeol _and_ Jongdae. He lets himself in, no greeting needed. 

Almost immediately, the two fools settle down into what is, by their definition, a casual, indoor voice. To Kyungsoo, it was only acceptable to call it an indoor voice if the two sat still and had their mouths glued together. Baekhyun was more tolerable, a more sensible fool than the other two, in his opinion.

"Okay, now that the gang's all here, it's off to the store with us!" Baekhyun shouts, despite it being a chore, it's a nice and casual outing he still enjoys nonetheless.

And with that, the other two in the car start talking about anything and everything that's on their minds. Soon enough, Baekhyun, despite his cautious mindset on the road, is joining in too, the car occupied with their voices and laughter.

Kyungsoo is slightly entertained, but more annoyed than anything. "Hey," he starts, "How about we all play the quiet game?"

A chorus of "Aw's" and "Boo's" is sung out against Kyungsoo's suggestion. He glares at every one of them, a smile threatening to rise any time from staring at their faces for too long. Their smiles always were the most contagious things.

Baekhyun approaches an intersection. A red light. He winks across at Jongdae.

Go time.

Jongdae turns around to face Kyungsoo. "Awwww, come on, Soo. We're having so much fun talking to each other! Just join the fun, babe." A grimace is plastered on Kyungsoo's face; an attempt at masking the light blush on his face.

It doesn't work.

Baekhyun quickly turns around to marvel at the sight, not daring to note on it, though.

Jongdae's smiling like the cheeky shit he is, and it just makes Kyungsoo flush a little bit more. Suddenly, both him and Chanyeol felt like they were interrupting a "moment". Oops.

He's really glad he's the driver. Sucks to be Chanyeol alone in the back. He looks to the rear and muffles the laughter that threatens to spill from his lips. Chanyeol returns his gaze with his puppy eyes and stops squirming, silently pleading with Baekhyun to be his savior for the moment. Baekhyun figures it'ts okay to be the bad guy one in a while, and directs his attention to the intersection, the streetlight going from red to green. 

It's not too long before they're turning in from the street to the desolate parking lot. Most people usually do their shopping either early in the morning or late at night; there is no in-between.

Baekhyun parks right in front of the store and turns his key out of the ignition. "Okay, so, are we staying together this time? Or, are we just gonna do our own thing and meet up at a specific time?" Baekhyun's always had a thing for planning things out. It does wonders preventing mishaps.

Jongdae is the first to speak, "I say we stay together. It's more fun that way," he suggests, wearing a mischievous grin. Baekhyun would think it to be suspicious if he wasn't already used to his antics.

Both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol are fine with this and agree to Jongdae's plan, most likely because they have no other reason for coming along besides wanting company. Baekhyun thinks it's amusing, but he can't really blame them.

"Alright, out with you lot," he commands, opening his car door to welcome the summer rays yet again.

Despite the relatively short ride, he find everyone stretching their muscles (although Chanyeol is the only one who's height warrants it), but he makes no comment on it and continues to the store entrance. He grabs a cart without any sort of trash inside of it and walks through the automatic doors with his friends. The cool burst of AC is welcome and appreciated among them all.

He takes out his grandmother's shopping list and heads straight to the aisle where the bread was, being the leader the rest of the group followed.

Fortunately for him, she never really wrote the specific brands or types of food she wanted, so that was left unto him to decide and pick as he desired. His main concern was the bargains that came with each individual product and the money they'd save buying one brand over another.

"Any of you guys need bread too?" Baekhyun asks behind him.

Jongdae is the only one who says yes, his shopping list in hand as well. He's quick to grab a certain brand off the shelf and Baekhyun can't help but comment on his choice. "You get whole wheat bread?" 

"Yeah, what's wrong with my bread choices?" he sasses, hand on his hip.

"They're inferior, that's what. And on top of that, it's more expensive than the obviously better white bread!" He crosses his arms. "And don't give me the 'my mom asked me to get this bread' shit because I know your mom hates it too, Dae."

"Okay, thanks asshole, there goes my scapegoat," he mocks Baekhyun's stance and retorts, "It's healthier anyway, buddy. Can't deny the facts printed on the label." He points to the back of the bread package he just picked out.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes, "Alright, alright. I concede." He puts his hands in the air in surrender, receiving a nod and a "That's right." in return.

Bread, check. Next thing on the list is water.

And he starts getting into the rhythm of things, like an easy to follow melody: go to the aisle where you'll find the item, compare prices, and listen to the group's whining on about how long Baekhyun takes picking out his groceries.

By then, he's already done with his grandmother's list and gotten a few things for himself (all within budget, of course), and the four stand in the only open line, the file of people stretching out all the way into the aisle behind the register.

Well, that's not new.

The only thing that sucks about coming to the store when it's not busy is that they always have the nerve to keep one line open. Baekhyun's always found annoyance in this, but it's not like he owns the place, so he keeps his comments to himself. He uses the time to be productive, looking inside the cart and ensuring he got everything on the list, simultaneously separating his and Jongdae's items to their own respective sides (which he paid for on "accident" one store visit last year). And he's definitely _not_ letting that happen again, still in mourning for the 20 dollars lost that day.

With a groan, he realizes he's forgotten the milk that was listed on the back of the paper. He decides to run to the back to get it on his own. "Hey, I forgot something on my list. I'm gonna go grab it real quick." He turns away to walk towards the back of the store, not in a rush considering the still line.

He's got time.

As he's strolling through the freezer section, he hums the tune flowing through the speakers above him. He's been considering singing again these days, it's good stress-relief. Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae were always praised as "vocal gods" by most when they were in the choir club. Maybe he'll pitch the idea to them, maybe meeting up on weekends just to vocalize among themselves without anyone's critiques or compliments but their own. Out of the three, he and Jongdae adore and seek the attention and compliments equally. Jongdae would always joke about making their own freelance, independent boy group. Baekhyun (against the idea, but willing to entertain Jongdae's thoughts) always joked that they didn't have a dancer to fill the position, to which Jongdae always proclaimed that he would be the main dancer of the group. Laughter and teasing were thrown around because of the comment, leaving a pouty Jongdae for Kyungsoo to coddle.

The first think he sees when making his way to the milk section is the amount of lights they have on. Baekhyun squints his eyes slightly, trying to get accustomed to the extremely bright light. He walks up to where his brand of milk is; the price for milk was usually uniform all around, so Baekhyun didn't have to spend much time debating the prices here.

Except, he can't even make his way to where the milk is because there a small group blocking his way. He can't really groan in annoyance, for he does the same whenever he comes to the store.

He clears his throat to catch their attention, before politely saying, "Excuse me, but you're, you know, blocking the milk."

Although there seems to be four people in his way, only three of them care to turn around and face him. One of them has dark circles around his eyes, like he doesn't sleep much, but his blonde fringe does well to distract him from dwelling on it long. The brunette in the middle just looked at Baekhyun with a blank face. The one to the farthest right had gray hair and a shy, polite smile adorning his features. Of course, they all had an inch or two on Baekhyun's height, that's never surprising these days. He curious about the other figure who's still facing away from him, but he's ultimately more curious about when the hell they're going to let him grab his milk in peace.

Well, this is awkward. Baekhyun hates awkward. "So, um, would you guys mind moving maybe? Not to be rude, but I'm probably gonna be next in line soon and I really don't feel like having my broke friends let people in front of my place in line because I'm not there."

This seems to work, seeing as how they all move to beckon their friend to the next aisle, like bodyguards. The mystery person (guy?) has a haircut that has Baekhyun double-taking, like he's seen it before somewhere. Jongdae's idols, maybe?

Nope. Although, it is very idol-like.

From the little spacing his tall friends (?) offer, he can clearly make out a familiar figure. Yixing.

Here comes Baekhyun's poor impulse control. He quickly says, "Hi, Yixing." Not a yell, the greeting at least loud enough for the other to make out.

His friends, as Baekhyun assumes, all turn around and flit their eyes from Baekhyun to Yixing. They all turn to ask him something. Baekhyun can vaguely make out what they say. They're (it's mostly brunette guy) asking Yixing if he knows Baekhyun and if hes's bothering him. Yeah, definitely like bodyguards.

He can see Yixing shake his head and whisper something in the brunette's ear. Said brunette begins walking up to him, "Listen, he seems to be somewhat cool with you so for now, I'll let up. I don't know how you got to know Yixing, but first word I hear from him about you annoying him or making him uncomfortable, I'm comin' for you."

Baekhyun can't really take the threat to heart, not when his mind is reeling on a key detail he's heard.

First word?

Yixing talks?!

Baekhyun feels a finger being shoved onto his chest multiple times. "Hey. I'm talking to you, salmon head." At this comment, his two tall friends beside him quickly come to calm him.

"Stop, Sehun. You're being too much," the blonde says to him quietly, but still reprimanding enough to get the brunette's attention. 

"Yeah, it's not cool, Sehun," the gray-haired one says, turning to Baekhyun. "Um, sorry about that," he adds shyly.

"Nah, it's fine. Thanks." He doesn't know what else to say beyond that, his eyes falling to Yixing. He looks slightly bothered by the ordeal, and doesn't hold Baekhyun's gaze, only looking at him to return the small wave he offers.

"Of course," he responds before adding, "Uh, I'm Jongin by the way." Another shy smile.

"Baekhyun." He looks expectantly towards the serious blonde and mean brunette.

Jongin is quick to gesture a greeting from them. Seems Jongin, despite his seemingly shy persona and mannerisms, is the reasonable voice of the group. Like a nicer, more patient, and death stare-free version of Kyungsoo.

The blonde is first to rush out his greeting, "Hi, uh, 'm Zitao." He offers quietly, before standing back beside the grouchy brunette and Yixing.

Nothing from the tall, angry brunette. Jongin gives him an encouraging, yet forceful look. He tries to glare back but it seems he just can't.

A groan before he introduces himself, "I'm Sehun. Don't think we're all 'buddy-buddy' now, though, I've still got my eye on you," he glares at Baekhyun.

For the sake of keeping the peace, he doesn't respond as Sehun makes his way to the spot left in front of Yixing. Baekhyun doesn't move, the milk he intended to get from this section having been long forgotten about at this point.

Jongin is the first to break the short silence, "So, um, we'll be taking our leave now. It was nice meeting you, Baekhyun." the rest begin to walk off without Jongin. 

Baekhyun motions in their direction to let the other know about their currently retreating backs, "Yeah, nice meeting you too, Jongin. Hope to see you again sometime, maybe we can chat like civilized people next time around." Getting a smile in response, Baekhyun turns to the milk he nearly abandoned. He grabs the jug with the light purple cap on top and backtracks to the now even longer line.

His friends are near the front of the line, Chanyeol and Jongdae both wearing faces of distress at Baekhyun and his money's absence. Kyungsoo just stands there, smirking at them. He's the first to notice Baekhyun and waves him over.

Before making his way there, he stops. The familiar tufts of hair in the back of the line stop him. He can see that the shortest figure of the group, Yixing, is tensing up, even with the three surrounding him like a protective bubble. Never one to think when it comes to his actions (especially concerning Yixing), Baekhyun walks up to them.

"Hey, my friends are already at the front of the line, you're welcome to come and pay with us," he offers.

Sehun is the first to reply to his offer. "So, you suggest we cut in front of these people?" he retorts, eyebrows raised in annoyance.

Oh. He didn't think about that.

"Well, I just, you know..." He trails off, his eyes land yet again on Yixing's stiff form. "I can see you're not exactly cool with standing in front of all these people, so I figured I offer a faster route out of here," He has a smile on his face even though Yixing isn't even looking at him, seemingly thinking about his offer.

Yixing nods, and Sehun caves in to whatever the silent boy wants and quickly changes his stance on the offer. "Well, lead the way then," he commands.

How does a guy this rude even have friends? Baekhyun is legitimately puzzled by this guy's attitude and his ability to be friends with sweet Jongin and Yixing. Zitao, despite looking serious, seems nice enough and speaks rarely. So yeah, three lovely friends even with the way he acts, makes Baekhyun think the world has collectively lost its mind and all knowledge on manners or etiquette.

Baekhyun takes them to the front of the line where his friends were, the cashier nearly finished with ringing up all of his and Jondae's items. Zitao, begins putting their items on the conveyor belt. "Please ring these as well. Sorry about the sudden inconvenience. Hard to resist a lot of stuff you got here. Seems there's never anything irresistible here," Baekhyun tells the cashier, who blushes and giggles loudly in response. Oh.

Yeah, she's cute but he didn't mean to flirt with her, it's a natural thing he does. He was mostly referring to their deals, but hey, at least he knows he's still got his charm.

He fails to notice Sehun's stare burning a hole through the back of Baekhyun's skull, and Yixing finding the floor much more interesting than he usually does at the moment.

He smiles at the petite cashier, and proceeds with checkout by getting his wallet out, having already calculated what he should have for his total as he shopped. All that time spent in every aisle wasn't for nothing, after all.

He hears chatter around him now. He looks up to see Chanyeol chatting it up with Sehun, not that Chanyeol talking to new people was a surprise, but the fact that Sehun was replying like an actual human being had Baekhyun reeling. He looks to his side where Jongdae and Kyungsoo stood of on their own, Kyungsoo trying to hard to look annoyed at whatever Jongdae is talking to him about. He smiles to himself as he gives out the bills he had in his hand to the cashier. He gets his change back and pushes his and Jongdae's shared cart to gather the bags at the end of the station.

"I do hope you realize that I'm not gonna get your bags for you, Princess Dae, so get moving," Jongdae gives him a face of betrayal and begrudgingly starts gathering his bags, mumbling under his breath about "cock-blocking" or something like that, Baekhyun doesn't really care. The two fools (yes, he can call Kyungsoo a fool) can dance around each other all they want wherever there's no line of people behind them to worry about. 

He calls over Chanyeol, giddier than ever, so that they may all leave. "Hey, Yeol! We're leaving now," a groan from Chanyeol and a glare from Sehun.

"Coming!" he replies, voice much too loud for an indoor setting. He then proceeds to tell Sehun goodbye and walks over towards Baekhyun and the gang.

Baekhyun figures he's close enough to not give out an exaggerated goodbye, so he looks towards Yixing and says, "Bye, Yixing. I'll see you at school tomorrow.", his signature smile on display for the quiet boy. He turns to the polite Jongin and soft-spoken Zitao, "It was nice meeting you, Zitao, Jongin." He reluctantly looks over to Sehun, missing Yixing's look of distress at the interaction between the two. "Bye, Sehun. My hair's more of a carnation shade by the way, salmon's way off. Maybe carry around a color palette with you so as to not get it confused with each other, pretty boy." With that, he pushes his cart towards the exit, satisfied at his snarky comment. Serves the guy right.

The sun has nearly set once he exits the store. It's a beautiful sight.

What ruins this sight is the yelling he hears coming from the direction Baekhyun's car is in. He lets out a sigh. 

"Baekhyunnie!! You're taking so long! Hurry up!" Chanyeol and Jongdae yell from across the parking lot. Kyungsoo is annoyed and looks as if he's going to pounce on the two fools any moment. Baekhyun hopes for that outcome and yells back, "You weren't saying that when you guys were busy flirting with your boyfriends!"

Oh yeah. That shut them up.

Sure, Kyungsoo might take offense to that comment, but it's worth the look on their faces.

Once he was in range to continue his conversation at a normal volume, he than says, "You fools need to get in the car and stop embarrassing us every public place we go." He turns to refer to both himself and Kyungsoo.

Being Chanyeol and Jongdae, they replied, "It would help if you unlocked the car, Baek." simultaneously.

It takes all of Baekhyun's willpower to stop himself from hurling jars of pickles directly at each of their heads. He pulls his keys from his front pocket and clicks on the unlock button, the car once again giving a beep and flash of light as a response. Kyungsoo stays with Baekhyun to help load the truck of the car while Jongdae and Chanyeol hastily enter the car, and just as hastily begin to make a ruckus that can be heard even with the doors closed.

Kyungsoo, unhappy with the amount of noise coming from them, deadpans at Baekhyun. "Baekhyun. Can your trunk fit two bodies?"

"Dark, Soo. That's real dark."

"I'm joking."

"Maybe it's better you leave the jokes to anyone who is not you or Junmyeon." He's being serious. If any one could win an award for cracking the worst jokes, the two would be tied with each other.

"You're the worst, Baek," he says, organizing the plastic bags by their weight.

He realizes that neither him nor Chanyeol bought anything from the store for themselves. Baekhyun was right, both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol had no other reason for coming besides accompaniment. He doesn't know if he should be touched by the thought or pissed off at the amount gas money he spent picking the two up.

"Hm, your boyfriend loves me though," he smirks, stealing a quick glance at Jongdae, who's inside of his car and messing around with Chanyeol.

"What."

"Nothin'!" he exclaims, leaving the empty cart for Kyungsoo to deal with, slipping into his car with ease.

The smile he shows Kyungsoo once he takes a seat in the car is met with a death stare. He just keeps smiling as he fits the key into the ignition and drives out of the parking lot to drop them all off at their homes.

The sun sets before Baekhyun is able to make it to any of their houses, he turns on his headlights to illuminate the road in front of him. Jongdae is singing away in the passenger seat.

Soon enough, the car is filled with all of their voices mingled together as they sing along to one of Jongdae's covers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao @ baek i heavily relate to the social interaction being draining
> 
> my attempt at angst/glimpses of what's to come is poo, but hey, i make do
> 
> still deciding on a set schedule for updating, but im currently thinkin every 3 or 4 days would be good. it takes me a day to write, and another to beta. the extra day or two is bc im a procrastinator :D
> 
> im thinking i add slow burn to the tags bc wowee i love takin my time when it comes to havin charas fall in like with each other


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> baekhyun deals with a less than savory person and is told/hinted by his friends that he's in denial.
> 
> which he's not. not really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so...after getting into a car accident while writing this chapter and losing my outlines, i kind of pushed this fic to the side...
> 
> bUT i think ive got my rhythm again :)) a lot of things i had planned for this fic are changing for the better imo

7 in the morning. A glorious time, really.

Not.

Baekhyun sits up in bed and peers over to the nightstand where his alarm rang.

He lets out a sigh when he confirms that it is in fact 7, and that there wasn't a spontaneous time change that would grant him an extra hour of sleep.

Curse school's ridiculous schedules and early starts.

Even on a school night where Baekhyun has no assignments to work on, he still manages to get an inadequate and measly 6 hours of sleep. Maybe normal for others, but not for him.

His usual 8 hours of sleep couldn't be done last night because of two, lovely, lovely people.

Leave it to Jongdae and Chanyeol if you want your sleeping schedule wrecked beyond repair. They find it particularly charming to spam their group chat at 2 in the morning with nonsense, memes, and even more nonsense.

Kyungsoo, Junmyeon, and Baekhyun, who all cherish their sleep, do not find this charming. Not at all.

Baekhyun finally gets up, the need to fumble around for an outfit or his house key is no more.

Baekhyun made sure to set them aside last night while he had extra time after coming back from the store and spending a bit of time in the group chat, talking about any plans they want to make for the upcoming weekend.

Before walking out the door, he looks at the wall where is cork board is. Usually, the pictures of his grandparents and friends hung up by mini clothespins strung on a single piece of twine serve to make him smile.

Now, he has nearly written letters and wrinkled pieces of paper hung up with the same pins to make him smile even wider.

He sends Jongdae a text telling him he'll be out in a minute, and makes his way down to the kitchen where his both of grandparents were sitting at the table having their daily morning coffee.

With his grandmother's reminder that she has book night at a friend's house at 6, farewell kisses and hugs for the both of them, he's on his way.

The first thing to greet him outside is the blazing sun.

It's a bit of an annoyance with him directly facing it. He uses his hand to shield his eyes from the light.

The second thing to greet him is Jongdae. 

"Hey, Baek," he greets.

"Hey."

They start down the usual path, following the sidewalk along the road, and slipping into their usual routine conversation.

"So," Baekhyun starts, wriggling his eyebrows. "You and Kyungsoo last night. You know, I can't help but notice that he never sings unless you accompany him." He nudges at Jongdae's arm with his elbow.

"Shut up. Don't even get me started on your little crush on Yixing," he sasses.

Baekhyun scoffs at the remark, "First of all, I wouldn't classify my interest in him as a crush. I mean, sure, he's attractive and seems cool, but there's not much beyond that. He's a good guy and friend."

Baekhyun is still conflicted about whether or not he and Yixing have even reached friend status. For sake of the conversation, though, he calls him a friend anyway.

Jongdae just sighs and puts his hand over his face. "Denial is not a cute look on you, Baek."

"Fuck you," he huffs. "And second of all, you didn't deny shit with Kyungsoo," He shoots Jongdae an all-knowing look.

Sometimes Baekhyun couldn't tell just who was more stubborn between the two, but it's definitely very entertaining for both him and Chanyeol to sit back and watch as chaos ensues.

"The looks you had on your face while staring at him last night would beg to differ," he retorts.

"Okay, Dae. You got me. Guilty as charged." He puts his hands up in mock surrender, not at all phased by his teasing. He's had years of training to get used to it and to learn that it spirals into a whole other conversation that he usually doesn't want to have.

"Whatever," he sulks, shoving his hands to his pockets at his failed attempt to pry from Baekhyun.

Baekhyun just laughs at his friend's antics, "Love you, Dae." He reaches over to ruffle his hair.

His hand is quickly pushed away. "Yeah, yeah. We're in public, and I'm somewhat taken." He looks towards the crowd with a huff. "Love you, too," he mumbles.

Baekhyun shakes his head. Jongdae's always been one to dish it out, but never one to take it himself.

"Somewhat taken?" he asks, raising his eyebrows.

Jongdae snorts and rolls his eyes in annoyance. "Yeah, it's complicated."

"Complicated? You like Kyungsoo and Kyungsoo likes you. How much more simple can it get? That's total fairy tale preteen-pandering cheesy romance 5 dollar bargain bin movie material right there," Jongdae gets all flustered and starts choking on his spit. Baekhyun watches as he tries to regain his composure, his face reddening as a result of his loud, insistent coughing. Oh yeah, Baekhyun thinks, Kyungsoo's definitely got himself a winner. "What other criteria do you need to fill to be boyfriends?"

Jongdae huffs again and stuffs his hands in his pockets. Baekhyun is really getting a kick out of this rare Jongdae. "I dunno," he sighs.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. "Really? You guys need to come out with it and get married already."

Jongdae has another coughing fit, and Baekhyun pities him enough to pat him on the back through it. "Married?" he gapes.

"Well, you guys might as well at the rate Kyungsoo takes care of your ass."

"Hey!"

"It's true." he shrugs. "But really, why aren't you guys a thing yet? We all know about you guys. Hell, Chanyeol and I even had a bet going during freshman year because we really thought it would happen then."

"You guys bet on us?!"

"Uh, yeah. Although I thought it'd be easy money for me since I bet it would happen the last week of school."

Jongdae just stares at Baekhyun like he has a third eye. It's really hard not to laugh at the scene in front of him.

"You guys are not subtle at all. Especially you, Jongdae."

"Whatever," he pouts. "I still can't believe you fucking bet on us."

"We bet on anything. Like the time we bet on your grades sophomore year," Jongdae frowns at the mention of his grades. "Or the time we bet on how many girls would ask Junmyeon to Winter Formal."

He laughs. "Remember him stressing about how to turn then down?"

"And him spending so much time turning them down that he forgot to take one of them as his date?"

They both burst out laughing at the memory of Junmyeon going all by himself to Winter Formal; a mandatory event given his class president status.

While Baekhyun and the gang were enjoying a nice dinner at the mall's best burger place (Which also happens to be Junmyeon's favorite restaurant), Junmyeon was sending pictures over the group chat of his dateless self and soda-stained tux all night.

"Anyway," Baekhyun says, still giggling at last year's fiasco. "I really am curious as to why you guys aren't dating already. Given your touchiness now, it shouldn't change too many things, right? Or is it one of those 'I don't want our relationship to change things between us' scenarios?"

"No, it's not. For me, at least." Baekhyun looks at him expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate.

Jongdae clicks his tongue and huffs, looking straight at Baekhyun with as much anger he can muster. (It isn't much.) "I want him to ask  _me_." 

They reach the crosswalk that leads to their school, Baekhyun walks over to the large silver button on the post and presses it a multitude of times.

Baekhyun is really confused. "Why does that matter?"

Jongdae groans like he doesn't want to explain it any further. "It just does, man."

It's their cue to walk, so they both step off the curb simultaneously and make their way to the front gates of the campus.

"So that's the  _only_ reason why you two aren't sucking each other's faces off?"

"Such a way with words, Baek," he deadpans. Baekhyun blames Kyungsoo for the formation of this habit. "But, yeah, I guess so. Pretty much the only reason when you put it like that."

"Alrighty then," he shrugs. "Whatever floats your boat, Dae." He really doesn't have room to speak about another person's love life anyway.

Especially when it's practically non-existent at this point in time.

And when his only experience with relationships was a week long fling with a girl he had no romantic attraction or sexual attraction to, yet at the same time,she somehow turned out to be the bane of Baekhyun's damn existence, her personality absolutely unbearable.

Dark times. Dark, dark times they were. Baekhyun shudders at the thought of it. 

He knows himself now and has gotten over trying to find himself. At least, in that aspect.

They continue to stroll the hallway without exchanging any more words.

Baekhyun doesn't mind the silence too much this time, the countless footsteps and chatter serve to fill and distract him from it.

He stops in front of his first class, realizing that he's actually early today.  

It's time to split off. Baekhyun waves Jongdae off, and walks into class.

He takes his seat next to Yixing, unaware of his presence, dazed-looking and seemingly off in another world. 

Baekhyun is very amused, and slightly envious. To be able to live inside of your head for more than two minutes is a skill that Baekhyun doesn't have, much to his dismay.

He takes his backpack off and places it in his lap, zipping it open to pull out his pencil and notebook.

He vaguely recalls the teacher announcing that they would take notes in class today, and even if he didn't care about the subject at hand, he was not going to slack off or get careless now. He can't really afford to.

The way he handles his pack seems to snap Yixing out of whatever trance he was in.

"Sorry," he whispers. 

Yixing just shakes his head slightly to put Baekhyun at ease, and turns back to the front, his supplies already having been laid out before him.

Well, it would be rude not to greet him properly at this point, so he picks up his pencil and prepares to scribble on the notebook in front of him.

Only to find that he doesn't know what to write on the blank page; he's conflicted, and the words (or lack thereof) just aren't coming to him.

He can't decide if he just wants to make everything short, sweet, and simple, or be his usual self and risk potentially scaring Yixing off.

Sure, he responded quite well yesterday while passing notes, and confirmed that Baekhyun wasn't as big an annoyance as he initially thought he was, but it still fails to put him at ease either way.

Yixing probably was the type of person to stick to manners and being polite, no matter how uncomfortable he may feel at the moment.

Maybe Jongdae's observations  _were_  right in that aspect.

His pencil is hovering over the page as he decides how to approach this. Interaction with people hasn't been this troublesome for him in a while, and it's not supposed to be.

The bell that rings serves to frustrate him even more, it makes him feel as if he's under pressure. As if he's only got ten minutes left during test time, but only has his name written down in the provided space at the top of the damn thing.

Not that it's ever happened to him, but it's something he sees his peers struggle with often. A prayer is always sent their way, even if Baekhyun is far from being the religious type. He thought the situation was something akin to what he's feeling now.

Rather than spend more time scratching his head and hesitating, his impulses seem to just make him say fuck it, and he settles for letting them guide his still frozen hand.

_hey! how are you doing?_

He rips the paper containing the message. It's not the most detailed or "Baekhyun-like", but it'll have to do for now because he's got nothing else. He slides it in front of Yixing before he has a mind to regret it.

He looks away, not bothering to watch Yixing read the message he wrote for him, slightly anxious thinking of the possible reactions he could provoke.

He doesn't know why he's so out of touch with his emotions, especially when interacting with Yixing. Even despite the okay he received from him the day before, he can't help but feel as if it's all to appease Baekhyun.

With a shake of the head, he'll gladly quiet down and leave Yixing alone.

It beats having to be told that he talks too much, or that he's too quiet, or whatever other bullshit someone would like to spout.

Or, at least, in Yixing's case, write? Would he even bother to write that about Baekhyun? Why is he even thinking about this?

He tries to focus on the thought at hand.

All he'll think at the moment is that it's always been hard to please everybody, Baekhyun knows that firsthand. Hard and fucking terrible, as he likes to say.

He looks down to see that a note has been neatly placed in front of him. 

_hi! i'm okay. nothing much has been going on lately. :/_

_also about last night...i'm rly sorry about sehun. i'm not sure why he acted the way he did, but i know it wasn't appropriate. it's a normal thing whenever we meet new people. not sure why, and none of us ever really question it. he's a bit overprotective of us. he always means well, though._

It doesn't really explain his apparent attitude problem, but Baekhyun is grateful for the acknowledgement of Sehun's behavior either way.

Kind of sad that his friend has to apologize on his behalf, but Baekhyun won't push it further next time they meet.

Sometimes, it's just not worth the hassle. Baekhyun doesn't think it would be worth upsetting Yixing either, but he keeps that to himself.

He writes his response on the notebook in front of him.

_oh, don't worry too much about it! i mean maybe i was a bit too harsh when i confronted him. idk i can't blame him if he's the self-proclaimed "guardian" and takes it seriously._ _but yeah, i'm not too bothered by it. i'm all good! B) if we meet again, i won't push it. on another note tho, (unintentional pun, i swear) zitao and jongin seemed like rly nice friends :0_

_i also gotta say that it was surprising to see you at the store last night. had to double-take to make sure i wasn't seeing things lol_

He places his pencil down and slides the note down. It's a nice rhythm that they've set up, despite the short period they've been exchanging the notes.

They alternate between writing their notes and copying down the very minimal ones needed for this class.

Baekhyun thinks the rhythm is so easily found because of the familiarity of it, even if his love for it has been lost and forgotten over the years.

He takes the note in front of him and unfolds it as if it would rip at even the slightest movement.

_hm. maybe just a bit. he's the youngest of us, so it's our job to protect him too. but no harm done i suppose :) and yeah, they really are, i honestly don't know what i'd do without any of them. and well...the house isn't going to stock itself, right? even though i hate being out and about, i'd rather it be me than my grandmother. so yeah, that's pretty much the reason why i went last night, with sehun, zitao, and jongin always being at the ready to go with me anywhere i go. i highly doubt that pun was "unintentional", but i'll take your word for it_

_also, i mean, not to pry, but are you okay? your notes seem less...like you? i mean before you'd go off on a tangent n stuff but now you seem like youre holding back._

_is it bc of the way i react to you? i'm sorry if it is._

Baekhyun frowns at the last sentence, Yixing shouldn't have to be apologizing for anything.

To make Yixing feel like he was a piece of glass was the last thing Baekhyun wanted, especially when he told him that he'd interact with him just as he would with anyone else.

Yixing made it known that the notes and the talking was fine, so why is it so hard to just interact with the guy?

Sure, Baekhyun still feels like Yixing only confirmed this to get Baekhyun off his back and to be polite, but it was still confirmation given nonetheless.

Interacting with people hasn't been this hard in such a damn long time, and it's driving Baekhyun up the wall.

He writes another response, putting his thoughts aside so that he can formulate something coherent on the sheet of paper.

He spares a quick glance at Yixing, who's still looking to the front, unreadable emotion plastered on his face.

Baekhyun knows that he's the cause for the unease, and he feels extremely guilty for it.

_pls don't apologize!! it's really not u, but rather, it's me. ig i'm just feeling like less of anything would be a lot better for you? i know you gave me conformation that everything was fine, that the notes and me speaking to u were fine, but my brain hasn't received the message yet :// sure, our interactions together aren't exactly the most conventional or verbal...but i enjoy it a lot! but like i said it's really not ur fault for me being so unlike myself, so don't worry at all!! i'll get into the groove in no time, u just keep doing u, yixing :D_

_but really, if you ever feel like it's all too much, or if you happen to spontaneously change your mind, then let me know and i'll back off asap._

_after all, friend status is a mutual thing, right? i'll respect your boundaries just as i would anyone else, yixing._

He places the note in front of Yixing, giving him a bright smile in attempts to show that everything is okay between them.

Whether or not the gesture worked is beyond Baekhyun because Yixing is faced away from him, not opening the note he still holds tightly in his hand.

Baekhyun quickly ducks down to write another note for him.

_but hey it's a bit tense, so let's talk about something else :) u live with ur grandma?!!! so do i! :D i def feel u on the errand-running duty lmao_

He doesn't bother to fold the piece of paper in half, instead sliding it towards Yixing so that he doesn't have to deal with the anxiety coupled with not knowing the contents of the message.

As expected, he reads it over as it is, relief seeming to spread throughout his features.

Yixing writes and passes his response to the empty space in front of Baekhyun.

_thanks. i really appreciate the thought. but yeah, i have been for a while now. ha, it's not the easiest job in the world, us grandsons have to be on the ready 24/7._

Baekhyun laughs, partly because of the very relatable comment Yixing made, and partly because he's relieved that his ability to pick up social cues isn't so nonexistent after all.

Before he can begin to write down a reply, the bell rings and a multitude of students rise from their seats to move on to the next class.

Damn bell and its conveniently shitty timing, as Baekhyun loves to put it.

He lets out a sigh as he stands up with Yixing.

He has half a mind to ask him for his phone number, figuring that passing notes a majority of the class would get them both bad marks; something that's certainly not appreciated, especially if it resulted from a class that's not even  _that_  important.

As he looks at Yixing's fleeting figure, he decides to push that request aside with a slight huff.

He refolds the notes atop his desk and slides them into his front pocket before he moves to leave the room, making his way to his next class.

 

The rest of his classes are rather uneventful, even the one he shares with Jongdae right before lunch.

Of course, this was a result of his own urging because they really shouldn't be spending their valuable class time texting each other.

The second day of school is where the material of every class is already thrown out at students. The first day and last day are really the only exceptions Baekhyun has when it comes to focusing in class.

This is still enforced by Baekhyun even after all the "Good noodle." murmurs he could hear across the room and the insistent vibrations against his thigh throughout the whole period.

These annoyances and the pouts thrown his way made it much easier to resist Jongdae.

It's extremely easy to ignore a whiny Jongdae. Baekhyun thinks he should offer lessons because he's so damn good at it.

That is, until the lunch bell rings and class is dismissed.

Baekhyun doesn't have to look over in his direction to know that Jongdae's bee-lining right to him, he can almost hear the whines that will ensue in the back of his head.

"Dude, not cool." whined a voice behind him. "I was dying of boredom in this damn class! I can't believe you'd knowing let your pal Jongdae suffer like that!"

Baekhyun snorts at the comment, "Are you sure that I wouldn't?"

"Fuck you." Baekhyun just smiles at him and walks towards the door, sulking Jongdae following right behind him.

They walk out of the door and meld with the flowing crowd, aiming to get to their lunch table in one piece and before the lunch period ends.

As they make their way there, they spot a very familiar figure even in the large sea of people.

At first glance, it just looks like your typical nerd with neatly combed hair, textbooks in hand, and a tucked-in shirt.

But, Jongdae and Baekhyun happen to know him well enough to point him out in a crowd of hundreds.

Sure, Junmyeon's a nerd. He's just not a  _typical_ one. Big difference.

"Hey! Junmyeon!" Baekhyun yells across the crowd, getting many stares of confusion in response to his outburst.

Baekhyun and Jongdae push through the crowd to get to Junmyeon, whom of which is currently ducked down with his hand to his face.

"Baekhyun, there really is no need to shout in the middle of the hallways," he mumbles into the palm of his hand.

Jongdae just pats him on the back. "Of course there is!" he exclaims.

Baekhyun joins in, "Yeah, do you forget who you're friends with, Junmyeon?"

Junmyeon groans, "No, unfortunately, I can't. Not with a majority of you all being louder than necessary." He lets himself be guided by Jongdae and Baekhyun to their shared table.

They just laugh at this, their laughter much louder than usual in attempts to annoy Junmyeon even further.

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol are already seated by the time they make it to the bench, Kyungsoo listening as Chanyeol goes on to animatedly move his hands to explain whatever it is he's talking about.

He is the first to notice the three of them, waving them over with a big smile plastered on his face.

"Hey! Junmyeon's back!" He cuts off his one-sided conversation with Kyungsoo to greet them.

The yell gets a groan in response from both Kyungsoo and Junmyeon and a couple of stares from another table.

"I was only gone for a day," Junmyeon mumbles.

Baekhyun and Jongdae just laugh at his comment and at Chanyeol as he remains oblivious to the reactions, still waving with endless energy.

"Hi, Chanyeol," he greets with a smile, then turning to Kyungsoo. "Hi, Kyungsoo."

"Ah, Junmyeon. Ever so polite Junmyeon," Baekhyun sighs, draping an arm over his shoulders. "We're all friends here, there's no need for you to greet us like an old man everytime we're together."

"Leave him alone, Baekhyun. At least Junmyeon has manners and class." Kyungsoo says jokingly. Or at least, "jokingly" according to him.

Baekhyun decides to entertain him anyway, sometimes being known to occasionally push Kyungsoo's buttons just the slightest bit. The main title holder for that, though, is definitely his unofficial boyfriend, Jongdae.

Baekhyun lets out an exaggerated gasp. "No class? Me? Kyungsoo, oh, you hurt me so!"

Kyungsoo glares at him, not having any of Baekhyun's nonsense. He's ready to dash at any moment in case Kyungsoo decides to spring at him or something.

"Okay, let's settle down, guys," Chanyeol stands up to "keep the peace", motioning for the group to take a seat.

"Settle down?" Kyungsoo turns to Chanyeol. Baekhyun is quick to let out a sigh of relief as Chanyeol valiantly and stupidly throws himself to the wolves.

"That's the last thing I want to hear from you, Chanyeol, especially when it seems you don't know the meaning of the phrase." 

Jongdae takes his hands off of Junmyeon's shoulders. "Alright, Kyungsoo," Jongdae starts, shooting a wink at a hurt, sulking Chanyeol. Baekhyun and Junmyeon see right through his scheme, slowly shaking their heads in sync. "Let's calm down, okay?"

Kyungsoo huffs as Jongdae makes his way over to him. "I was totally calm, Jongdae," he argues, but allows Jongdae to grip onto both of his shoulders anyway. "Whatever. How about we all just shut up and take our seats?"

So, they all sit, not willing to argue with Kyungsoo. That's a damn losing battle if Baekhyun's ever seen one. 

He, Chanyeol, and Junmyeon group together and sit across from Jongdae and Kyungsoo. (Definitely not on purpose; the glances the three stole at each other were completely coincidental.)

It's silent from there on. Baekhyun is only slightly bothered by it.

Just slightly.

Jongdae is always reliable, and seems to know just when to strike up conversation. Baekhyun is always grateful for it.

"Anyway, how's life, guys?" Jongdae pipes up, arm draped over Kyungsoo's shoulder, smug look on his face.

Kyungsoo glares at Jongdae, but makes no move to scoot away from Jongdae's hold. "It would be just amazing if you and Chanyeol weren't fucking nocturnal."

Junmyeon and Baekhyun nod at this. "Yeah, you guys have no chill," Baekhyun complains. "I mean, come on. Spamming shit on the chat at 2 in the morning? Not even me."

"There's an option to mute your notifications, Baek." Chanyeol says.

"Just like there's an option to make another freakin' group chat? Or, you know, just text among yourselves?" he sasses back, making Chanyeol surrender with his hands up.

"You got me there."

"Okay," Jongdae gets their attention by drawing out his words and hitting the table with the palm of his hand. "Back to my original question if you please."

No one opens their mouths to speak as the question is obviously directed at Junmyeon, as he's been absent from the group since yesterday. Baekhyun nudges Junmyeon with his elbow to have him speak first, and he shifts in his seat beside him.

"It's okay, I guess," he shrugs. "Being class president takes up a lot of time, especially since school's just starting. But today, I'm technically free after school."

Everyone turns to Junmyeon, gaping and in disbelief that busy bee Junmyeon has time off on a school day. Everyone is in disbelief except Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. 

"Technically?" Kyungsoo asked, leaning on the table with his elbow. He still has Jongdae's arm around him.

Junmyeon awkwardly runs his hand through his hair. "Uh, yeah." he gulps. "I  _would_  have free time, but I'm volunteering at the school library today. It's a new year, and I'm sure the librarian needs all the help she can get."

"Do you really have to? It's been a while since we've hung out." Jongdae whines.

Kyungsoo elbows him in the side, and Jongdae makes even more remarks about them not having enough time to spend together as a group.

Kyungsoo pays him no mind and turns to Junmyeon. "It's cool. Don't mind him, we all know you try to free up time for us, so don't feel too bad, Junmyeon."

"Yeah, Soo's right. I mean, we did hang out the day before school anyway." Baekhyun hums thoughtfully. "In fact, Junmyeon, I think I'll join you today. It's been a while since I've stayed back to help out. I miss it." 

Junmyeon clasps his hands together and hums in delight. Baekhyun smiles and is proud to elicit a reaction like that from him.

Jongdae makes a grimace at the decision, and opens his mouth to whine again, but Baekhyun beats him to it. "Don't even say anything, Dae. I think I'm entitled to a little time to be productive today. After all, I drove your ass to the store yesterday _and_ tolerated your shit choice in sandwich bread."

Everyone bursts out laughing at Jongdae.

Junmyeon is the only one who seems to pity him at the moment even despite his opinion on Baekhyun's choice to take on library duty with him after school.

"Baekhyun," he says.

Oh shit. Leave it to Junmyeon to be the mother of the group. He braces himself for an hour of lecturing and reflecting on what he's done. What he did wasn't even that bad. Right?

"Rye are you so sourdough?"

Did he really just say that?

Junmyeon bursts out laughing at his own joke.

The rest of the group just stares at him with a blank expression, all of them feeling second hand embarrassment for him on the inside.

It's moments like these where Baekhyun wishes he had a cage of crickets on-hand for added effect.

His laughter dies down, and he looks at the group with confusion. Chanyeol pats Baekhyun's shoulder as if to say, "I'll take it from here." and looks straight at Junmyeon.

"Junmyeon..." Chanyeol trails off, thinking of what to say. "That was  _really, really_  bad. Just leave the jokes to me, Baekhyun, and Jongdae."

Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow. "I'm here too, you know."

"I'm aware of that."

"Oh, screw off," he sneers, turning to Junmyeon. "Junmyeon and I are fucking hilarious." He gets a nod in return.

Chanyeol attempts to refute the statement, but Baekhyun steps in first. He thinks they both deserve some slack, even if their humor really  _i_ _s_  terrible.

Which, yes, it most certainly is.

"Yeah, Chanyeol, lay off of these top notch comedians right here."

"Are you being sarcastic?" Kyungsoo glares at him.

While racking his brain for an answer that wouldn't end up with him running for his life, he's startled by the bell reverberating throughout the courtyard.

He lets out a sigh of relief as he takes back all the times he's dissed the damn thing. It's finally working in his favor after 4 years of being here.

He's quick to grab his backpack and a lone peach from Chanyeol's tray, wrapping the fruit in a napkin, and deliberately ignoring Kyungsoo's glare even as it bore a hole in the back of his head.

"I'll meet you at the library after school, Junmyeon!" he shouts, speed-walking to the main hall. "And, no, I wasn't!" he adds, giving Kyungsoo a thumbs up before he's engulfed with the crowd flowing into the building.

He lets out a sigh of relief as he walks up to his locker. After getting his book, he realizes that he forgot to bring the batteries he bought last night for his string lights.

He makes a mental note for himself to bring them tomorrow and shuts the metal door behind him.

As he walks down the hall, he wonders if he should offer to walk Yixing to class again. He didn't seem to mind too much yesterday as Baekhyun asked him if it was alright.

Then he starts to have doubts about his interactions with Yixing specifically.

He was hoping that Yixing, or anyone else for that matter, didn't see it as an... advance? Courting ritual? He couldn't come up with a word or phrase that didn't make it sound so weird.

After all, plenty of people walk their friends to class without any other motives behind it besides being polite.

Which was all Baekhyun wanted to do.

Yeah, that's just it. 

But other people might not have the same reasoning as Baekhyun does.

The last thing he wants is for people to start suddenly hounding Yixing over them possibly being a couple. Especially if it's people who only start to give a shit about his existence only if Baekhyun's involved in some way with him.

It's happened before with Taeyeon. One of the "perks" of being at a pretty good standing in the popularity heirarchy.

Granted, they were both high up there, but still, the possibility of Yixing being bombarded with people he doesn't know is high when Baekhyun is around.

Great. He's having second thoughts and he's mentally kicking himself for it. Everything is complicated, weird, and annoying. Baekhyun hates it.

He lets out a huff, still walking the same pace as his fellow students, too deep in thought to pay attention to others greeting him. 

Baekhyun realizes he's nearing Yixing's locker, but before he can decide what to do, his feet guide him there anyway.

Impulses, impulses, impulses.

He kind of wants to punch himself in the face right now, but instead, he looks up expectantly.

The locker Yixing fumbled through yesterday had no one in front of it. No dark-haired, dimpled note writer to be found. He frowns and stomps away in disappointment. 

He doesn't make it far before someone from his next class calls his name. Always up for being a socialite, he spins around to greet him, even without knowing his name. It hasn't stopped him from talking to people.

"What's up?" he says.

"Hey. You wanna walk to Econ together?" Baekhyun tries to remember his name during roll call yesterday.

Was it Evan? Ebony? No, that's a color. No one in their right mind names their kid after fucking irrelevant colors, or any colors for that matter.

It's got to be something with an "E" at the beginning of it.

He is  _not_ going to ask him for his name, that's awkward as hell. Baekhyun loathes awkward situations, silence, and anything else that can be described as awkward.

Baekhyun shrugs. "Sure. Let's go then?"

They walk together, talking about a range of things. At one point, it's about how boring the class managed to get on the first day, and at another, it's about their hopes for the year and their thoughts on graduation at the end of it.

Even in a two minute walk, Baekhyun is covering topics of all kinds with him.

A lot of people think it's spectacular or charming that he can strike up and keep conversation with almost anybody he wants.

Baekhyun doesn't understand why they think so.

He realizes that they're near Yixing's class. Out of curiosity, he peers over to the room, not knowing why he hopes Yixing is there. It's... weird. 

To his surprise, Yixing is there. 

And so is Sehun.

He tries not to frown or recall their first meeting the night before. He fails, but is quick to recover because he said he'd try not to push anything with Sehun.

Killing with kindness has always worked in Baekhyun's favor anyway.

There is no moment to decide whether or not it was appropriate or advisable to greet Yixing. He just does it.

"Hi, Yixing!" he shouts impulsively.

Sehun is the first to look up, glare on his face as he meets Baekhyun's eyes. Yixing looks distressed as his "guardian" mad-dogs Baekhyun. But he doesn't say anything to Sehun this time.

Not one to be phased so easily, Baekhyun just responds with another smile and a small wave.

"Hey, Sehun!" he says, still walking, catching Sehun off-guard and making Yixing giggle a little bit at Sehun's confused face.

Score.

Two favorable reactions make Baekhyun swell with pride.

Definitely the two reactions and  _not_  just because he got Yixing to giggle. 

He's too busy watching Yixing as he continues his conversation with Sehun, slightly envious of their interactions, and almost doesn't notice that Ebony started to speak.

"You actually talk to that guy?" His walking partner asks, seemingly in disbelief. 

Baekhyun doesn't really like his tone. "To who? Yixing?"

"The quiet dude."

"His name is Yixing." Baekhyun says simply.

"Whatever," he shrugs. "What I'm trying to get at is that it's just odd for you to even be acquaintances."

Baekhyun makes a sour face. "How so?"

"Because he's a social recluse who doesn't talk to anyone. It's not normal." Baekhyun's mind goes blank for a second.

"It's not normal to be quiet." is what he remembers loud and clear. It's the only thing repeating itself in his head. It's getting harder to breathe. 

He closes his eyes and takes deep breaths. The pattern of breathing is another familiar thing that comes back to him instantly in the moment.

He wills the memory away desperately before he can recall any more beyond that.

Right now, he's got to deal with this asshole.

"Not normal? Are you fucking kidding me?" he grits. He can't recall the last time he was this pissed off. He doesn't really want to anyway.

"Woah," he puts his hands up nervously. "What's up with you, Baekhyun?"

"What's up with me?" he nearly shouts in the middle of the hallway. "What's up with me is that you're being an inconsiderate asshole!" The yell is swallowed up by the other chattering going on within the large hallway.

"Shit, you're really getting on my ass for telling the truth? You sound like my mom."

He nearly explodes, but tries to keep it under control. It works. For now.

He takes a deep, deep breath before saying, "No, it's not the truth. He may not talk much, but doesn't mean he's not normal. That's an ass thing to say. He has friends and he's not a social recluse," he takes a breath to keep his composure. "You don't know him, so don't speak for him. Actually, just don't speak for anyone else but yourself."

The anger has dissolved into disappointment at this point.

If this guy thinks of Yixing like that, then there's bound to be others. No one deserves to be shat on like this by people they don't even know.

Sometimes, the people that are supposed to know you best do that already.

Having people who mean nothing in your life add on to the endless shit talk makes everything worse. From a logical standpoint, it really shouldn't matter what these people think or say about you. Yet, it somehow does. It fucking sucks.

"I get you. I get you. I guess it was kinda fucked up to talk about him like that," he shrugs, tone not really apologetic, but Baekhyun doesn't make note of it. "But, I mean, it's true by definition. I'm sure he's only got like 2 friends, if any. So yeah, he's a recluse," he says, turning to Baekhyun. "Everybody knows you're a smart guy, Baekhyun, and denying the facts is really unlike yourself. He's a nobody. Why does it matter so much to you what I call him?"

Baekhyun is very close to losing his cool. Very, very close.

Not only is this guy going to slander Yixing like he's not a human being with feelings, but he's also got the audacity to talk about Baekhyun like he  _knows_  him. 

Baekhyun is completely and utterly disgusted that people like this even exist. Always has been.

He's seething with anger right now, but doesn't show it. He's not as foolish as some would believe.

He takes a deep breath. "If it's fucked up, then don't say shit. Just keep it to yourself," he says, void of any emotion. "And don't say that like you know me. What I'm denying isn't fact, but your shitty, ignorant opinion."

They're already at the classroom, and Baekhyun is more than happy to split off in this moment before he does something that will hurt his reputation this late in his high school career.

He's not worth it anyway. There's always people like this. Just one of many out there.

The thought doesn't do much to stop him from being disgusted. He's seen it way too much to stop.

Before he walks to his seat, he makes a mental note to steer away from him in the future, spliting off there, before adding in another piece of knowledge.

"Even if it were true, it still doesn't make it right to say."

It's a satisfying ending to an unsatisfying conversation.

Baekhyun doesn't bother to look at his offended face. People like him make Baekhyun sick. 

He takes out his notebook from his backpack and stares at it for a few seconds.

The last portion of the torn page stayed smooth and flat against the remaining others even though Baekhyun haphazardly shoved it in his backpack a class prior. The small piece is barely holding on to the metal spiral with the few holes left connected to it.

He flips the flap over to a fresh page, not really having the heart to rip the small portion off. The teacher is copying things on the board at an alarming rate, and he copies them all down without really understanding the material.

His wrist cramp begins to act up. That, along with the beginning of the lecture, is distant to him.

His thoughts drift to Yixing and Baekhyun finds that it's a very common occurrence. He doesn't know what to think of it.

For some reason, his chest begins to ache. He thinks back to the recent conversation bringing him up, and chalks it up as the reason why it hurts so much. He can relate.

Many would think that to be a joke.

Charismatic loud-mouth Baekhyun relating to reclusive mute Yixing? No way.

A lie is what they'd call it. Crazy is what they'd call him.

And he does not want that because he's not crazy or too quiet or pathetic or a fuck-up.

He is normal.

His head feels numb, but he tries to focus on the lecture and quickly jots down the missing material written on the board by the teacher. His writing is sloppy and all over the place, but it's legible.

His wrist hurts and his chest feels weird. He wonders for a second if the feeling really is just because of the similarities between him and Yixing.

It can be safe to say that Yixing is his friend. Jongdae, Kyungsoo, and even Chanyeol think that he harbors feelings beyond that.

They probably see something that he doesn't. Baekhyun knows what they hint at, and is very aware of their doubts about Yixing being just an "interest".

Interests are people you see at the mall and make a passing remark about how hot they are, then the next minute you're right on your way without a second thought about them.

Baekhyun's not totally clueless. His friends aren't totally oblivious and see things that Baekhyun can't. It's something he's found out over the years as their friendship progressed.

Apparently, they see that Baekhyun has a crush on Yixing. Baekhyun can't answer their annoying, observant prodding honestly if they asked him right now because, well, he doesn't know the answer himself.

His mind might not know, but it seems his heart does.

But maybe he's got it all wrong.

His chest is still teetering on that odd sensation where it feels empty yet full at the same time.

Yeah, he's probably just got heartburn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> baekhyun trying to decipher whether or not his feelings are a blossoming crush or are there just because he relates to yixing is damn wild ride ill tell ya
> 
> also @ those who subbed to this story: thank you, im flattered beyond words :000 i will make sure this story sees its end as my days of dropping fics are gone! (hopefully)


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